The Yak Shack Forum

I received this email from eBay about changes to PayPal's Buyer Protection Policy.  You have to read it through to realize that eBay is making a concerted push toward limiting buyers and sellers to PayPal.  Basically, there will no longer be Buyer Protection unless you use PayPal.

To help increase buyer trust on eBay, next week we will be expanding
coverage on eBay.com in the U.S. and eBay Canada on items paid for with
PayPal in these ways:

-PayPal will be offering $200 of protection with NO processing fee on
ALL PayPal transactions for tangible goods in the U.S (excluding Live
Auctions and vehicles). In Canada, all PayPal transactions for tangible
goods will be covered up to $315 CA. PayPal is offered on over 95% of
listings in the U.S., so buyers can choose to be protected on the vast
majority of listings. There is no processing fee, no minimum purchase
price, and no seller requirements.

-PayPal Buyer Protection will be increased to cover up to $2,000 for
tangible items listed by qualified sellers in the U.S. This is a huge
increase in coverage for high-end items being bought and sold on eBay. It
doubles the current $1,000 coverage offered for tangible items listed
by qualified sellers. And over 75% of listings in the US qualify. Note:
in Canada, tangible items listed by qualified sellers will be covered
for up to $2,000 CA.

Qualified items will clearly indicate the amount of coverage available
on the item page. This means that buyers will know – right at the
time they are making their buying decisions – that they are covered if
they pay with PayPal.

There is one more important change we'll be making at eBay. Beginning
next week, eBay will discontinue the eBay Standard Purchase Protection
Program (SPPP) in the U.S. and Canada.

This program, which was established in 1999 before eBay acquired
PayPal, has covered all eBay transactions, except for items paid for with
cash or instant money transfer services, for up to $200 minus a $25
processing fee. In the early days of eBay, the program served an important
function, providing some measure of purchase protection for paper
transactions (cashier’s checks, money orders and personal checks) that
constituted the bulk of eBay transactions. The time and costs associated
with verifying a dwindling number of non-PayPal paper claims, however, has
led to a poor user experience. Buyers also expressed frustration with
the $25 processing fee.

But there's another issue with SPPP that becomes more important as eBay
grows. From a risk management and fraud prevention perspective, SPPP is
flawed, because it offers coverage on the riskiest payment methods.
This is clearly not in the best interests of the marketplace long-term.

While eBay has established an Accepted Payments policy and we do allow
other established payment methods on the site, one thing is true -
PayPal is a safe way to pay on eBay. PayPal enables eBay members to shop
without sharing their financial information with sellers, and PayPal's
sophisticated fraud prevention mechanisms are eBay's best defense against
internet fraud. We want to build on this solid foundation. These
changes in our protection programs are important in our efforts to encourage
safer transactions, improve customer satisfaction, and provide more
coverage for more transactions than we can today.

These changes to the protection we offer buyers are important to the
future health of our marketplace and the growth of our sellers'
businesses. We'll be answering questions about these changes in an upcoming
workshop, so please stay tuned for the date and time.

I don't understand the first item, that there will be no processing fee.  I was never charged a fee for any PayPal dispute.

Thank you for posting this info Cindy!   :)